1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of manufacturing axisymmetric components made of a composite material having a metallic matrix.
It is known that, in the future, metallic matrix composite materials will be used in the aeronautical industry and in the construction of aircraft engines, such materials having the advantage of being mechanically very strong and very heat resistant as well as having a lower mass than conventional metallic materials.
Such composite materials may, for example, consist of a metal matrix of the titanium or titanium-alloy type and of reinforcement fibers of the ceramic type, for example of silicon carbide, SiC.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
The techniques currently employed for producing large sized axisymmetric components made of a composite material comprising a titanium or titanium-alloy matrix reinforced with silicon carbide fibers are described in French patent 2,289,425 in the name of the present Applicant company and in French patent 2,366,904 in the name of Armines.
A first technique consists of winding the fiber which is to form the reinforcement on a mandrel so as to form a layer on said mandrel, carrying out a plasma deposition of the material which is to form the matrix on said fiber layer, and then repeating these winding and plasma deposition steps as many times as required before finally carrying out hot compaction of the structure obtained.
This technique has the drawback of not permitting an equally spaced arrangement of the fibers in the material as a result of the need to carry out, for each fiber layer, two inclined plasma depositions in order to fill up the spaces between the turns of the wound fiber with matrix metal, and a third plasma deposition in the direction radial to the mandrel so as to cover the fiber with matrix metal for the subsequent winding of the next fiber layer.
A second known technique consists of alternately winding a fiber reinforcing layer and applying a foil of matrix metal on the wound fiber layer. The drawbacks of this technique are the risk of making folds in the foil, the risk of not covering the fibers uniformly, and the difficulty of producing satisfactory successive stacks. As a result, the structure of the final material after hot compaction is liable to include local stress concentrations deleterious to the correct behavior of the material in the harsh environments for which it is intended.
In addition, French patent 2,640,195 to Rolls Royce discloses a process for producing wound composite structures, in which ceramic fibers and titanium wires are used. The titanium wires are twisted around the ceramic fibers, and the structures obtained are then wound around each other in the manner of a multistrand rope. The resulting structure is then wound inside a preform before being infiltrated by a metal whose melting point is lower than that of titanium, and subsequently hot formed.